My friends and I are 4 years experienced hikers, and next year we want to go for a 5000 m (16,400 ft) mountain. What are the best options regarding the complexity of the trail and how beautiful the view is? We live in Germany, Munich.
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7Note that summit height has little to do with ascent difficulty. Summit height is simply the elevation above sea level, at the summit. If the base elevation is very high, the actual mountain could be a mere hill above the base, and baby simple to climb, yet still be at 5,000 metres.– Jim MacKenzieCommented Jul 23, 2018 at 17:20
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2Consider better metrics than pure elevation. I'm a fan of prominence thresholds. See here: peakbagger.com/Help/Glossary.aspx#prom Going for Ultras (1500m prominence summits) is a major undertaking as they are usually relatively isolated if easy to climb or they are major technical climbs if densely packed together.– GabrielCommented Jul 23, 2018 at 17:53
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1Unclear what exactly you are looking for. In the Peruvian Andes, you can drive on roads up to 5100 m without a problem. So just drive to 4999.9 m, and step on a stone?– AganjuCommented Jul 23, 2018 at 20:52
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3 Answers
If you're looking for close to home, I'm thinking about Mount Ararat (Turkey), Damavand (Iran), Elbrus (Russia) although this last one has glacier travel to contend with.
Then you have to go to south America for easy 5000m peaks. Or Kilimandjaro in Africa.
The first thing that comes to mind to me is Kilimanjaro. It's almost 6,000m and my evaluation of it would be class 2 (I haven't seen any proper rating of it) and that only on the final ascent, getting there was easy (except for the altitude) class 1 trail.
You have far more experience than I did when I tackled it. We didn't manage to summit because of the ice--no big deal by night, glacier equipment required by day and we had neither the equipment nor the training for that. We were too slow, the sun caught us just short of the secondary summit and we basically crawled the last little distance to it. More recent pictures show that global warming has done major changes, I don't know if the ice is still a problem or not. Without that problem I'm sure the two of us that didn't turn back from the altitude or cold would have made the summit.
Edit: I didn't realize the grading wasn't universal.
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@sgerodes Look up the Yosemite Decimal System (YSD) it's a North American grading system. Class one is an easy hiking trail. Class two is simple scrambling with the possibility of having to occasionally put a hand down on the ground. Commented Jul 24, 2018 at 16:24
Do the Everest base camp and Kalapathar trek in Nepal. The maximum elevation you gain on this trek is 5,545m at Kalapathar and maximum elevation for overnight at 5,100m. No previous experience of trekking is required but you should be moderately fit and adaptable to high altitude and continue walking for 13 days.
